Toolkit #4: Develop Your Agent Network
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HOW TO SUCCEED IN YOUR DIGITAL JOURNEY: A SERIES OF TOOLKITS FOR FINANCIAL SERVICE PROVIDERS HOWCASE STUDY #4: DEVELOP TO OWN AGENT NETWORKSUCCEED IN YOUR DIGITAL JOURNEY: A SERIES OF TOOLKITS FOR i FINANCIAL SERVICE PROVIDERS TOOLKIT #4: DEVELOP OWN AGENT NETWORK PART 2: CASE STUDIES NBS BANK, MALAWI CEC, CAMEROON MICROCRED, SENEGAL* By PHB ACADEMY and MICROLEAD CEC Cameroon staff using a mobile banking device Courtesy of Eric Kenkolla *Microcred is not a MicroLead partner but received support from The MasterCard Foundation MM4P MOBILE MONEY FOR THE POOR HOW TO SUCCEED IN YOUR DIGITAL JOURNEY: A SERIES OF TOOLKITS FOR FINANCIAL SERVICE PROVIDERS CASE STUDY #4: DEVELOP OWN AGENT NETWORK ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS We would like to thank the management and staff of NBS Bank in Malawi, Caisse d’Epargne et de Crédit du Cameroun (CEC) in Cameroon and Microcred in Senegal for their contribution to these case studies. We thank them for their time and for sharing their information, lessons learned and recommendations, to enable other financial service providers to succeed on their digital path. We would also like to thank the team at Women’s World Banking that helped us draw a truthful picture of the efforts by NBS in the area of agency banking. We would like to thank in particular the following individuals for their time and effort to prepare this series of case studies: Esnat Nchembe and Ntaja Ntandaza from NBS Malawi Eric Kenkolla from CEC Cameroon Mareme Sène and Yoann Guirimand from Microcred Senegal Jennifer McDonald, Alejandra Rios and Meghan Flaherty from Women’s World Banking AUTHORS PHB Development: Lisa Chassin and Ruth Thiemele Kadjo United Nations Capital Development Fund − MicroLead: Pamela Eser, Hermann Messan and Ivana Damjanov REVIEW COMMITTEE PHB Development: Marie-Sophie Tar and Aurélie Wildt Dagneaux The MasterCard Foundation: Ruth Dueck-Mbeba and Amos Odero EDITOR Chela Cea July 2017. Copyright © UN Capital Development Fund. All rights reserved. The views expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent those of the United Nations, including UNCDF, or their Member States. The designations employed and the presentation of material on the map(s) and graph(s) contained in this publication do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Secretariat of the United Nations or UNCDF concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. HOW TO SUCCEED IN YOUR DIGITAL JOURNEY: A SERIES OF TOOLKITS FOR FINANCIAL SERVICE PROVIDERS CASE STUDY #4: DEVELOP OWN AGENT NETWORK iii TABLE OF CONTENTS List of tables, figures and map v List of acronyms vi OVERVIEW OF TOOLKIT 4 1 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 2 CASE STUDY OF NBS BANK IN MALAWI—JOURNEY AND OBJECTIVES 4 NBS Bank at a glance 4 Objectives of going digital 5 The digital journey 5 CASE STUDY OF NBS BANK IN MALAWI—APPROACH TO IMPLEMENTING DIGITAL FINANCIAL 7 SERVICES Regulation and partnerships 7 Products and services 8 Distribution channels 12 Internal organization 16 Financials 18 CASE STUDY OF NBS BANK IN MALAWI—ACHIEVEMENTS 20 Fulfilment of objectives for digital finance 20 Adoption and use of digital financial service channel 21 Cost/Benefit analysis 22 Benefits for NBS Bank 24 Benefits for clients 24 Benefits for agents 25 Summary of benefits 25 CASE STUDY OF NBS BANK IN MALAWI— 26 KEY INFLUENCING FACTORS AND LESSONS LEARNED Analysis of readiness 26 Key influencing factors 29 Challenges experienced and mitigation strategies deployed 30 Lessons learned 33 The way forward for NBS Bank 34 HOW TO SUCCEED IN YOUR DIGITAL JOURNEY: A SERIES OF TOOLKITS FOR FINANCIAL SERVICE PROVIDERS CASE STUDY #4: DEVELOP OWN AGENT NETWORK CASE STUDY OF CEC IN CAMEROON—CREATING ITS OWN AGENT NETWORK 35 Digital model in a nutshell 35 iv Objectives for developing its own agent network 35 Channels, tools and technology 35 Digital journey 35 Cost/Benefit analysis 36 Key success factors 36 Challenges and lessons learned 37 Next steps 37 CASE STUDY OF MICROCRED IN SENEGAL—CREATING ITS OWN AGENT NETWORK 38 Summary 38 Objectives for the creation of an agent network 38 Services offered and channels used 39 Implementation efforts 40 Model in action 41 Results achieved and cost/benefit analysis 43 Key success factors 44 Challenges and lessons learned 44 Next steps 44 Key figures on Microcred Senegal (April 2017) 45 Results achieved though technology in Senegal (2016) 45 ANNEX I: MALAWIAN CONTEXT 46 About MicroLead 48 About PHB Academy 48 About UNCDF 49 About The MasterCard Foundation 49 HOW TO SUCCEED IN YOUR DIGITAL JOURNEY: A SERIES OF TOOLKITS FOR FINANCIAL SERVICE PROVIDERS CASE STUDY #4: DEVELOP OWN AGENT NETWORK v LIST OF TABLES Table 1: NBS Bank overview 5 Table 2: NBS Bank agent value proposition—Financial and non-financial benefits 12 Table 3: NBS Bank agent recruitment—Example of a recruitment scorecard 14 Table 4: NBS Bank agent monitoring—Example of a daily transaction record 16 Table 5: Summary of internal changes at NBS Bank 17 Table 6: CapEx for the development of Bank Pafupi and Pafupi Savings 18 Table 7: OpEx for the development of Bank Pafupi and Pafupi Savings 19 Table 8: NBS Bank digital finance objectives and achievements 20 Table 9: Pafupi business case scenarios 22 Table 10: Benefits for clients of NBS Bank 25 Table 11: Summary of benefits for NBS Bank, clients and agents 25 Table 12: NBS Bank compliance with recommended prerequisites for Business model #4 27 Table 13: CapEx costs for Microcred Senegal 43 LIST OF FIGURES Figure I: NBS Bank digital journey 6 Figure II: Deposit at a Bank Pafupi agent 10 Figure III: Withdrawal at a Bank Pafupi agent 10 Figure IV: System architecture of Bank Pafupi 12 Standardization of the selection process by NBS Bank for consistent quality Figure V: 14 of agents Figure VI: Training of trainers’ approach utilized by NBS Bank 15 Figure VII: Agent network growth at NBS Bank 21 Figure VIII: Pafupi Savings Account uptake 21 Figure IX: Pafupi Savings Account deposit growth (MK million) 22 Net profit per year (MK million) without grants and external assistance for Figure X: 23 NBS Bank Figure XI: Cumulative net profit (MK million) with grant funds for NBS Bank 23 Figure XII: Readiness of NBS Bank at time of digital financial service engagement 26 Map 1: NBS Bank branch network 4 HOW TO SUCCEED IN YOUR DIGITAL JOURNEY: A SERIES OF TOOLKITS FOR FINANCIAL SERVICE PROVIDERS CASE STUDY #4: DEVELOP OWN AGENT NETWORK vi LIST OF ACRONYMS ADC alternative delivery channel MFI microfinance institution ANM Agent Network Manager MIS management information system ANO Agent Network Officer MK Malawi kwacha* ATM automated teller machine MNO mobile network operator CapEx capital expenditures OpEx operational expenditures CBS core banking system PIN personal identification number CEC Caisse d’Epargne et de Crédit du Cameroun POS point of sale CFAF CFA franc* RBM Reserve Bank of Malawi FI financial institution SMS short message service GPRS general packet radio services UNCDF United Nations Capital Development Fund IT information technology US$ United States dollar* KPI key performance indicator USSD unstructured supplementary service data KYC know your customer * Currency symbols: UNCDF uses the currency symbol ‘US$’ for the United States dollar, ‘MK’ for the Malawi kwacha and ‘CFAF’ for the CFA (Communauté financière africaine) franc, which is the legal tender in Cameroon and Senegal (discussed in these case studies) as well in a number of other countries. HOW TO SUCCEED IN YOUR DIGITAL JOURNEY: A SERIES OF TOOLKITS FOR FINANCIAL SERVICE PROVIDERS CASE STUDY #4: DEVELOP OWN AGENT NETWORK cases of NBS Bank in Malawi and Microcred in Senegal, OVERVIEW OF TOOLKIT 4 which have developed their own network of agents, and highlights the case of Caisse d’Epargne et de Crédit in This toolkit is the fourth in a series of six toolkits aimed at support- Cameroon, which is in the process of implementing its own 1 ing financial service providers to go digital. network of roving and fixed agents. This toolkit describes the fourth model that a financial institution In this toolkit, the authors make a clear difference between fi- can choose: to develop its own (proprietary) agent network. nancial service providers (FSPs) and financial institutions (FIs; In this model, a financial institution identifies, recruits, trains, banks or non-banks). brands and manages its own network of third-party agents through which to distribute its financial products and services. FIs are a form of FSP. FSPs are broader and cover FIs, mobile The fact that it is the financial institution that handles all of these network operators and payment service providers. agent-related responsibilities is a key difference from Model 3 (Leveraging an existing agent network), in which the digital fi- When the term ‘FI’ is used in this toolkit, the authors refer specifi- nancial service provider (mobile network operator or payment cally to financial institutions and non-bank financial institutions but service provider) recruits, trains and manages the agent network NOT to mobile network operators and payment service providers. and the financial institution leverages it. Another key difference between Models 3 and 4 is that, in Model 3, the agent facilitates While in many cases an FI would offer both agency banking and mobile money operations while, in Model 4, the agent facilitates mobile banking, the authors have assumed for this toolkit that operations directly on a financial institution account. Most often the FI will only build its own agent network and that the in- there is no e-money involved in Model 4. teraction with clients will be over the counter with the agent using a mobile/point-of-sale/web interface for conducting the This toolkit is composed of two documents: transaction on behalf of the FI client.